October 2018 Family Household Spending Report & Saving Update

Welcome to our monthly “Share it All” Family Household Spending and Saving Report (A REAL FAMILY BUDGET YOU CAN COPY THAT WORKS TOO!).

My mission for this blog is help others work towards financial and time freedom, and that means putting your money to smarter spending, smarter saving and then making sure you do some smarter living along with it.

So below you will find the exact tools and strategies I use with my family’s incomes for doing just that and our progress towards our ultimate goals.

Feel free to copy and use these for your own family, and I would love if you would like to share your budgets to compare using the hashtag #realfamilybudget too.

// We budget to Zero with our Spending Report

I rename our Household Budget our “Spending Report” as how we use language in our descriptions of anything can affect the emotions that it brings within us.

We all are very fortunate to have homes and food to eat, better than 99% of the world, and when we focus on using our money to send it different places for our benefit that is when we feel positive about what we are creating.

I’m a huge believer in the Law of Attraction and believe that when we have a purpose to our spending, which is what a Budget really is, then this will allow more opportunities to come to us for showing more attention to where the money goes to.

In my Spending report, I use every last penny each month sending it to a specific fund or place – such as Investments/Savings, our retirement money and then how we spend it with our family and fun time.

I like to sit down at the start of every month and roughly plan how we will use the money in each allocation – such as family fun money – so that we can really plan how we will use it and use it well.

// Our Long term Goals

I take what I say and preach on this blog about creating a life of financial freedom and security, to create the balance of time and lifestyle of your dreams, very seriously.

Our family are working towards that very goal, and we are on target to hit it within the next 10 years, to retire early and live off our side businesses and investment increases.

In fact, with the power of compound interest and extra hard work than normal – it might be even sooner than that!

Our family knows the exact amount of money in Investments we need to reach in order to live off the interest payments indefinitely, and it isn’t rocket science.

// Want to know how to create your own Spending Report?

Check out one of my latest videos that explains how to start creating Spending Reports/Budgets so you can work towards goals such as retiring early, paying off that debt and creating your dream life and much more.

// Our 2018 Money Goals

We have a few buckets of money goals this year ahead, to keep us on track to hit our financial freedom long term goal but also so that we can live life comfortable and plan for the future.

This includes saving each month towards a bucket of money for Christmas and Home improvements, Insurance bills etc.

Next we have a large goal towards Invested money for 2018, which is a stretch on our normal comfortable saving pattern on Autopilot.

Then we are planning on holidays throughout the year and next, so we have a budget goal for that account.

Finally, we wish to create a 6 month Emergency Money account.

This means if we lose our regular incomes we would have 6 month’s worth of money saved to cover all the essential bills and food & petrol.

It’s then our job to recover those incomes within that time.

I should say that if you follow my Budget planning video, you will know that we apply a 10% additional payment to our Mortgage and Car payments, so that we will pay those off earlier than forecasted but also it allows a buffer if we needed to remortgage to a lower monthly amount if we were unemployed for any reason – and not lose our home!

// How did we do this month?

Here is the screenshot of how much we saved over from our cash budget accounts, and how we are doing to targets for end of 2018 financial goals.

You can also see how we are doing to our overall Financial Freedom target.

I’ve also added in some extra data to my spreadsheet – How much money we are generating with our investments for the future.

You can see that by using rough estimates of return of investments percentages of 4% and 10%, by tracking the age that we can be financially free is inspiring.

I’ve also listed how much monthly money I have added to our family’s “retirement” budget if we SAVED NOTHING MORE and let that amount sit there and generate interest until I was 55.

The month those amounts for our “predicted” (as nothing is guaranteed in stocks and investments) monthly increase amounts if we stopped paying into our investments took a jump up which was exciting to see.

We managed to save more than expected this month, despite having our family holiday right in the middle of June and some expenses (hiring a car/petrol etc) included.

// How are doing towards our 2018 Goals?

This month we had a week of holidays together, the schools were off and my husband and I took the week off work.

Lots of fun was had, sadly with a few sick days thrown in but those days in the house were relaxed and full of fun playing games and watching movies.

I felt this month though that we could have been better with our food and eating out purchases, the little amounts seem to add up and habits of buying and grabbing seemed more often.

However, I know that our budget allows for those temporary dips in will power, but the month ahead I really want to focus on being better with that.

I’m excited to be trying a new fuller method of Meal Planning, as you will have seen earlier on the blog this month, where I am planning every meal exactly in the hope this helps limit the amount of extra food purchases made without thinking ahead.

Investment wise – this month worldwide investments and the stock market dropped. I had a few people message me to let me know should I be worried, but the answer is a very strong NO!

Whenever the stock market dips this is actually a good thing – think of it like the shares going on sale for cheaper than they will be shortly again.

Every year the stock market will naturally dip and rise, but the average return on investment remains somewhat predictable.

We must focus on long term leaving our money – invest in index linked funds, and forget about it for a good few years before considering selling out.

The shares only have value when you cash them out – so don’t get the fear and take it out when it is dropping, wait till you need it properly.

It is really exciting to see that our investment target will be smashed if we carry on the way we are with saving this year, and that it is generating extra money for our retirement and even potentially allowing us to retire early in a few years time mid-40s.

// What went well and what can we do differently next month?

Great month for us – Investments continued to grow even with a busy month again and needing to purchase a new washing machine, plus my birthday.

My husband has been working hard to pursue a side line career in his spare time, that requires alot of learning and study for the next year or so and I’m very thankful that our balance in life allows opportunities like that.

I’ve also been so happy to hear all the wonderful comments from followers of my youtube channel and blog to see the progress they are making with their own journeys to financial freedom too.

It is very inspiring right now and so happy I get to share my journey with you all.

Remember to always make sure you plan for your goals too, and you never know what will come your way!

Be sure to check out my Youtube channel to never miss an update video on our budget, and for advice and tips on how to set up your own budget that works.